It took me about 3 months to learn italian so that people could understand me. After 3 years, I spoke it fluently and people were asking me where in Italy I was from!

My advantage: I already spoke two languages and I was living in Italy!

I learned mainly from watching TV and reading newspapers. I had a book of verbs which helped too.

Good luck to anyone that wants to learn. It is a beautiful, very expressive language.

Now I want to learn Spanish! :-)